International economic relations are increasingly governed by trade agreements that give rise to
regional associations. In this context, main socio-economic paradigms expand and, as a result,
processes such as Europeanisation in the case of European Union emerge. A key foundation of
Europeanisation is the adoption of regulation according to EU acquis by ascending member and
partner countries. Besides the prospects of massive adoption of regulation and application of related
enforcement, an important mechanism for paradigm expansion is the implementation of culture
change in the regulation framework. The paper discusses Europeanisation in the light of the theory
of institutional culture change as a planning and public policy instrument. The impact of institutional
cultural change is examined in the context of regulation, by using as a special case the competition
framework. The advantages and difficulties of promoting competition culture are discussed in an
international context and with regard to transition economies subject to Europeanisation, taking
developments in Moldova as a case-study. The main finding is that culture change implementation
must be incorporated into the strategic planning of regulatory authorities to mitigate the risk of
possible policy erosion or bottlenecks.
